Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have a First Edition hardback copy of "Hunt for Red October", published by the Naval Institute Press, which was Clancy's first-ever book. I bought it new the day it hit the bookstore shelves in 1984. That's how long I've been a fan of Tom Clancy's. Unfortunately, for a number of years now Clancy has chosen to go the James Patterson route of becoming a book mill using "co-authors", and the quality of his releases has suffered accordingly. I haven't even bothered reading his stuff for quite a while now. So when I saw this book that promised to bring "Together for the first time, an all star cast of Clancy's characters..." (from the book jacket), I snapped it up with high expectations. I wish I'd saved my money. What a bore! First of all, the story line isn't anything new or inventive at all. Pretty standard fare about Islamic fanatics trying to blow things up. Been there, done that. Now, obviously that is a current and timely theme in this day and age, but there's nothing at all original about the execution in this book. Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp does it about a hundred times better. Far too many characters with exotic Middle Eastern names for me to keep track of without a scorecard, and none of these jokers is at all unique or distinguishable. I'd think to myself, "Didn't this guy get killed off about 80 pages ago?", then I'd go back and find out that, no, it wasn't this guy, it was another guy with a weird and unmemorable name and no distinguishing characteristics. They were about as interchangeable as lug nuts. The pacing is awful; there's never at all any buildup of tension or excitement. It's like watching paint dry. Clancy (and his minions) seems to have forgotten that "Red October" was only 387 pages long (my copy), but was a good enough book to propel him to the top of the bestseller charts. Yes, several of his later books were quite long, but they were also vastly better-plotted and -written than this monstrosity. Just adding filler does not a good book make, any more than doubling the amount of flour in a cake recipe makes for a better cake. All you end up with is a dry, tasteless, crumbly mess. Even the characters who are part of the "all-star cast" have seen better days. Mr. Clark was a man of mystery in his early appearances, one of the more intriguing characters in Clancy's panoply. Now he's turned into a pretty mundane and boring guy about whom we know too much; and his sidekick "Ding" Chavez hasn't fared any better, having morphed into Ozzie Nelson with a gun. The other characters are all pretty two-dimensional - at best. Even Jack Ryan, the original "star" of the series, has lost his oomph and charisma, fretting about whether or not to run for President. This is the guy who took on the Soviet navy as a young CIA officer, and the IRA later on? You kidding me? What happened to him? He get his gonads shot off somewhere? Save your money. This book's a waste of time.